An openly gay Atlanta pastor previously removed from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and later reinstated has now been voted in by an overwhelming majority to the role of senior pastor at the biggest Lutheran church in Saint Paul, Minn.

The Rev. Bradley Schmeling, who in 2007 admitted he was in a committed same-sex relationship with Pastor Darin Easler, a former minister at the United Redeemer Lutheran Church in Zumbrota, Minn., was removed from ELCA's official clergy roster that year. His St. John's Lutheran Church in Atlanta, however, decided to keep him on as pastor despite the ELCA's decision, and he has served there since 2000.

Schmeling and Easler were reinstated in 2009 when the ELCA voted to permit gay and lesbian ministers in monogamous relationships to be on the roster. The 559-451 vote created a split within the Lutheran church, as a fraction of member churches left to start the North American Lutheran Church, which rejects openly gay clergy. more >>

While GOP presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney is not known for a willingness to discuss his Mormon faith in detail, at least during his political speeches, a family member and former Mormon has come out to accuse The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of being a cult and a fraud.

"I became convinced that it's a fraud," Park Romney, an ex-Mormon high priest and Romney's cousin, shared with the BBC. "I am alienated from my family. Their doctrine, their protocol and their culture as enforced by bishops encourages the families to disassociate themselves from the apostate."

Expanding on his reasons for why he was led to believe the LDS Church is a fraud, the Republican's cousin revealed: more >>

The Coptic Orthodox church of Egypt prepared for the funeral of Pope Shenouda III on Sunday, a day after the leader of the Christian minority for four decades died of longtime illnesses. President Barack Obama remembered him as an advocate for tolerance and harmony.

Shenouda wanted to be buried at the St. Bishoy monastery in Wadi Natrun, Nile Delta, and his church, which has about 10 million members in Egypt, will fulfill his wishes, local media reported.

The body of the 88-year-old patriarch, dressed in formal robes, will be laid in an open coffin in Cairo's St. Mark's Cathedral until Tuesday, the government-run Al-Akhbar newspaper announced. Shenouda, who had suffered from cancer and kidney problems for years, regularly flew to America for medical treatment in recent years. more >>

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and head of the Catholic Church Pope Benedict XVI will come together in prayer this coming Saturday in a symbolic gesture of solidarity and unity after years of tension over Anglicans shifting to the Roman Catholic Church.

Tensions between the Anglican and Catholic churches were heightened in 2009 when the Vatican launched a controversial program to allow disaffected Anglicans to join the Catholic Church.

The churches have divergent perspectives with regard to the ordination of women, homosexual bishops, and same-sex marriage. The Catholic Church has maintained a traditionalist stance on gender and homosexuality. Meanwhile, homosexual and female priests have been ordained in the Anglican Communion, which has been undergoing intense internal debate on those issues, leaving some of the church's 77 million members worldwide distressed. more >>

A Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation in Colorado with an estimated 4,000 members is one step closer to breaking ties with its mainline denomination.

First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs put its decision concerning breaking away from PC(USA) to a vote Sunday, and 88 percent of its members voted to leave the denomination.

Alison Murray, leader of staff for First Presbyterian Church, told The Christian Post that the church members voted to leave for many reasons that are connected to "the decline in the PC(USA)." more >>

A church in Colorado Springs, Colo., that has 4,000 members and was established in 1872 will informally vote Sunday to decide whether the congregation should leave their denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA), over same-sex marriage.

First Presbyterian Church in Colorado Springs will vote Sunday afternoon and later may seek to join the conservative Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians (ECO), launched by conservative Presbyterians in January over the denomination's vote last year to lift its longtime ban on gay clergy, The Gazette reported.

After PC(USA) removed the constitutional requirement for clergy to live "in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness" last May, dozens of congregations left the denomination. Covenant Presbyterian Church of Ligonier, Pa., parted ways late last year. In Ohio, four churches that were once part of the Miami Valley Presbytery also voted overwhelmingly to leave PC(USA). Churches in Washington, Wisconsin and California have also voted to cut ties. more >>